A return to persistent blackouts, dry taps?

By Lyson Swala

What Malawians hoped would be a return to the ‘proven leadership’ of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is increasingly beginning to feel like a return to the frustration of persistent blackouts and dry taps.

For many households and businesses, a day without an interruption to electricity or water has become difficult to imagine.

The situation raises an uncomfortable question,has Malawi returned to the service-delivery problems that voters thought they had left behind when the DPP lost power in 2020?.

The history of Malawi’s electricity sector shows that the problem did not begin yesterday.

During the DPP’s previous administration, particularly in the years before 2020, electricity shortages and load-shedding became a major national concern.

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) struggled to meet growing demand, while the country remained heavily dependent on hydropower.

The 2017 unbundling of ESCOM separated generation from transmission and distribution, creating Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) as the state-owned generation company, but the structural challenges in the sector did not disappear overnight.

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) administration that came to power in 2020 inherited a deeply troubled electricity sector.

It can be therefore unfair to say MCP completely eliminated blackouts.

In fact, the catastrophic damage to Kapichira Power Station in 2022 removed about 129.6 megawatts of generation capacity and contributed to long hours of load-shedding. 

Yet the period also saw efforts to diversify Malawi’s energy sources and strengthen the system, including solar projects and other generation initiatives.

The lesson from that period is that infrastructure problems require long-term investment rather than political slogans.

Water tells a similar story.Malawi’s urban water boards have struggled for years with ageing infrastructure, rising demand and inadequate investment.

In Blantyre, for example, the water supply system has been described as being under severe strain, with climate change adding further pressure.

The World Bank approved a $145 million project in 2023 to improve water and sanitation services in Blantyre, demonstrating the scale of investment required to address the problem.

This means that today’s dry taps cannot honestly be blamed on one administration alone,however, the government in power must still answer for the quality of service citizens receive under its watch.

What makes the present situation politically significant is the contrast between expectations and reality.

Malawians who supported the DPP’s return expected the party to demonstrate that its previous experience in government had prepared it to run the country more effectively.

Instead, frequent electricity interruptions are again dominating conversations in homes, businesses and communities.

In August 2026, ESCOM warned consumers that outages will last longer than the periods contained in the scheduled load-shedding programme.

That is hardly the picture of an energy sector operating with the reliability citizens expect.

The electricity crisis is particularly painful because power is not merely a convenience. A blackout means a small business cannot operate normally, a barber cannot cut hair, a welding workshop cannot weld, a maize mill cannot function and a student may be forced to study in darkness.

Hospitals and other essential institutions also depend on reliable electricity.

Malawi’s first 20-megawatt battery energy storage system, commissioned in 2026, is intended to improve grid stability and reduce the impact of outages.  Such investments are welcome, but they also underline how urgently Malawi needs a comprehensive and consistent energy strategy.

The same applies to water. When taps run dry, the burden falls disproportionately on ordinary families. People must spend money buying water, walk long distances to alternative sources or store whatever water they can find.

The consequences extend beyond inconvenience because unreliable water supplies can affect sanitation, public health and household finances.

Malawi experienced a devastating cholera outbreak beginning in 2022, with unsafe water and inadequate sanitation among the factors that complicated the crisis. 

A government that takes water security seriously must therefore regard reliable supply as a public-health priority, not merely a utility issue.

There is also a lesson in the MCP period that the current DPP administration should not ignore,even when a government inherits a crisis, citizens ultimately judge it by whether conditions improve during its tenure.

The MCP administration launched and pursued projects aimed at strengthening water and sanitation services, including initiatives by the Blantyre Water Board (BWB) to improve service delivery. 

Whether every project was completed successfully is another debate, but the principle remains important,governments must build beyond electoral cycles if Malawi is to escape the endless cycle of repairing yesterday’s failures.

The DPP therefore has an opportunity to prove that its return to power means more than a return to political familiarity.

It must demonstrate competence through measurable improvements in electricity generation, transmission, distribution and water supply.

Blaming the previous administration for every blackout or dry tap will not keep the lights on or bring water through people’s taps.

Nor should the MCP be romanticised as an administration that solved all these problems.

Both parties must be judged by results, because Malawi’s infrastructure challenges are older than any single government.

Ultimately, Malawians are not asking for miracles,they are asking for functioning public services.

The history of Malawi’s power and water sectors shows that the country has repeatedly struggled with underinvestment, ageing infrastructure, climate shocks and growing demand.

The return of frequent blackouts and dry taps should therefore be treated as a warning rather than normalised as part of everyday life.

If the DPP wants its return to government to be remembered as a return to effective leadership, it must make reliable electricity and water tangible realities.

Otherwise, what many Malawians hoped would be a return to proven leadership could instead become a return to the very frustrations that once pushed them to demand change.